MARIETTA – Marietta city employees will be subject to drug and alcohol testing as part of the city’s new policy this year. Councilman Cindy Oxender, R-At large, expressed to city council Thursday that though as an elected official she is not required to also participate, as chairwoman of the Employee Relations Committee, she wanted to set the example by voluntarily participating in the urinalysis program Friday.

CHARLESTON, WV – Parents put a great deal of trust in the person behind the wheel when they load their kids on the bus and send them to school. Before a bus driver is hired in West Virginia they have to pass a drug and alcohol test and a background check.

WANTAGH, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — An air traffic controller in Westbury, Long Island has been charged with illegally carrying weapons and possessing crystal meth. Police arrested Breen Peck, 52, during a traffic stop in Wantagh at 10:22 p.m. Wednesday. Investigators say Peck confessed to carrying two loaded guns without a permit. They said they found the crystal meth in his pants pocket.

Protection Against Internal Threats Series:
“Know The Difference Between Trust and Confidence”

Not enough coverage is available on the Internet through insightful articles, blogs and discussions concerning the serious liabilities of internal or insider business threats. This series of articles will educate and heighten your individual level of consciousness by focusing on the least observed security Achilles heel for any business. Practical case scenarios with proven solutions are provided. Following the Protection Against Internal Threat Series by C U Clear positions companies and organizations to proactively protect assets and information from internal vulnerabilities and threats. Our goal is to help you minimize situations that can lead to incidents of workplace violence.

At C U CLEAR we keenly appreciate that recruitment of high caliber talent is primary. Notwithstanding, a company that adopts this practice places themselves at risk in many aspects. We know that the completion of the background checks and/or investigations, coupled with an “all clear” final report without issues signals the responsible human capital officials that the new employee may enter the companies premises and be considered worthy of special “trust and confidence”.

For a moment focus your attention on the difference between two words: trust and confidence. Trust implies just what it says. Someone trusts another person to safeguard an item of value. This trust can cover something that is esteemed or treasured such as corporate secrets, client specific data, proprietary business strategies or internal operations information.

Trust can also further extend to a point where management no longer needs to closely oversee or “micro manage” work tasks or actions of an employee. A company or an organization may have an expectation that employees will always exercise decisions that are reflective of the company’s values, but what are […]

Protection Against Internal Threats Series
Does Securing IT Systems Protect Your Most Valuable Commodity?

Not enough coverage is available on the Internet through insightful articles, blogs and discussions concerning the serious liabilities of internal or insider business threats. This series of articles will educate and heighten your individual level of consciousness by focusing on the least observed security Achilles heel for any business. Practical case scenarios with proven solutions are provided. Following the Protection Against Internal Threat Series by C U Clear positions companies and organizations to proactively protect assets and information from internal vulnerabilities. Our goal is to help you minimize situations that can harm company reputation, client / customer relationships and head off potential incidents of workplace violence.

Most companies and organizations invest large amounts of capital in the physical protection of information technology assets. This technology investment comes with consultants that maintain hardware and program software safeguards. Company executives mistakenly develop a false sense of security thinking this approach protects their most valuable commodity; employees, customers or clients. Protecting information is important. In today’s fast paced cyber world, the acquisition of the latest information technology systems capable of withstanding and recovering from external (and I would add internal) cyber threats is a ‘soup du jour’. Others spend capital on erecting complex, elaborate and technically enhanced physical security systems.
How do organizations fulfill an even more critical, often overlooked, task of protecting employees and customers? Smart CEO’s and savvy senior executives can enhance security in several areas:

The abrupt shutdown of the nation’s beleaguered security clearance system will further hamper a program that has been beset by all sorts of problems over the past few years, creating a significant backlog and potentially even disrupting key government operations, industry officials say.

Stop hiring friends, relatives, referrals, or former industry colleagues simply because of your known association. You love your family and you have those friends within your circle that you trust just as much who you believe can help succeed. The dispassionate question to ask yourself is “does the person I’m consider hiring for my vacant position have anything in their background that could potentially bring discredit to your organization and its success? That is a Yes or No question. There is no wiggle room for personal relationships when it comes to making decisions that impact your business, its public name, brand, and reputation resulting from the legal implications associated with hiring an immoral person with a highly questionable criminal history or troubled past.

A common thread that we find happening far too often are company’s; especially federal contractors, hiring people just because they actively hold and maintain a federal “security clearance” and not exercising their due diligence by conducting a thorough comprehensive background check commensurate to the position level of the person being hired . C U CLEAR continues to raise the level of awareness of this very FATAL assumption and mistake. Note that depending on the level of clearance there are gaps within the period of their last investigation to the current time of the new position that can be detrimental to your business. Our workshops and consultant provided by C U CLEAR can take the guesswork out of this common overlooked issue and assumption that is becoming far too familiar among today’s federal government and contractors industry.

We see a repeatable occurrence among all other businesses and organizations across America which people are being hired without properly vetting them or exercising “due diligence” through a […]

A former student suing Montana State University has asked a judge to rule that MSU was negligent in hiring a convicted sex offender as a music professor and failed to protect her from being manipulated by him and raped.

I was being driven home from the airport to my house in San Diego in one of those shuttle van services. After dropping off two others, I was the last passenger. I had given the guy my address when I got into the van. The driver, a middle-aged guy started creeping me out as he asked me about myself such as whether I was single, married, had a boyfriend, etc. Then he started asking me what kind of sex I liked and started telling me what kind of things he liked to do. It made me afraid.